The computer has greatly affected essentially all forms of information management, including the geometric modeling arts. When a manufacturing company develops and markets a new product, it usually goes through a long process. This process typically includes a plurality of stages, such as conceptual design, detail design, engineering simulation, manufacturing, marketing and sales, customer training and support, etc. At individual stages of product development, different tasks are performed by people of different background and skill. Therefore, different software tools have been developed to provide needed functions at each stage. These software tools create and modify data associated with the same product. However, since the functions performed by the software tools are different, the data format that best supports the needed functions may be different.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.